engleski

Alarming situation on the EU beeswax market: the prevalence of adulterated beeswax material and related safety issues

The control of beeswax used in pharmaceutical and food industry (pharmaceutical grade beeswax and food additive E901, respectively) includes strict EU regulations defining beeswax quality criteria and standardized analytical methods for its testing. Contrary, beeswax used in the apiculture sector, where it is classified as animal by-product (ABP) not intended for human consumption and primarily used in the form of comb foundations, is not subjected to obligatory quality control prior to its placement on the market. According to the Reg. (EC) 1069/2009, beeswax and its products are categorized as category 3 material which includes ABPs that do not present a potential risk for the food chain as they must not contain residues of other substances and environmental contaminants. However, beeswax is frequently marketed as “safe” category 3 even when it contains substances of questionable origin and chemical background (such as most commonly used adulterants, paraffin and stearic acid), due to the lack of obligatory legal regulations. In this way, contaminated beeswax is regularly re-entering beekeeping technology and honey production process via uncontrolled comb foundation production and trade. The aim of this study was to investigate the quality of beeswax present on the EU market. In total 137 samples of comb foundations and wax blocks used for their production were collected from 15 European countries during the period 2016-2018. Samples were analysed by FTIR-ATR spectroscopy based analytical procedure developed for qualitative and quantitative detection of adulterants in beeswax. The results have revealed that >65% of analysed beeswax samples were adulterated with various share of paraffin (5 to 93%), while stearic acid was detected sporadically in samples from Western European countries. In addition to the violation of EU regulations in force (incorrect beeswax categorization, false advertising, deception of consumers), adulteration of beeswax also raises the question of food safety and public health issue given that honey (food that enters the global food chain) is ripened and stored in the honeycombs constructed on comb foundations containing foreign and potentially hazardous substances. Therefore, there is an urgent need for effective legislation related to the quality control of beeswax in the EU apiculture sector.

Beeswax quality control and adulteration issue ; comb foundation trade ; prevalence of adulterated beeswax on the EU market

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